Bulletin Bloopers :
The church orchestra is in need of more bras players
for the upcoming Christmas presentation.
Shout with joy to the Lord, all you lands: lift up your
voice, rejoice and sin.
Birthdays:
3
5
9
12
13
18
19
23
24
25
30
31
Diane Wicklund
Gene Schadow
Eli Zeller
Ilene McAlpine
Bev Swanson
Jessie Anderson
Ted Zaborowski
Bernice moyer
Ashley Swanson
Dale Hanson
Steve Swanson
David Faulhaber
Rhonda Peterson
Sophia Anderson
Tessa Zeller
Gideon Speaker today. Come and share in
information about a fellow ministry. A lover offering
for the Gideon’s will be taken.
Anniversaries:
Schedule for August 2012
Ushers: Scott Moan and Ilene McAlpine
Altar Guild: Alice Erickson
Aug 2nd Community Night Servers: Dale & Annette Hanson, Ted
& Pat Zaborowski, Raylene Swanson
Servers
Readers
5
Jan Marek
Nina Wicklund
Ernie Swanson
12
Bob & Jessie Anderson
Judy Wicklund
19
Gary & Darla Carlson
Tim Evenson
26
Tim & Tina Evenson
Naomi Glover
NOTE: If you are unable to serve as usher please contact Ted
Zaborowski. If you are unable to serve for other tasks, please
switch with someone or coordinate a replacement. Thank you.
SERVERS: One sweet and one cracker please
STONE
Two friends are walking through the dessert. During
some point of the journey, they had an argument and
one friend slapped the other one in the face.
The one who got slapped was hurt, but without
saying anything, wrote in the sand.
‘Today my best friend slapped me in the face’.
They kept on walking until they found an oasis,
where they decided to take a bath.
The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire
and started drowning but the friend saved him.
After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote
on a stone.
‘Today my best friend saved my life’.
The friend who had slapped and saved his best
friend asked him, ‘after I hurt you, you wrote in the
sand and now, you write on a stone, why?’
The friend replied, ‘when someone hurts us, we
should write it down in sand, where winds of
forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone
does something good for us, we must engrave it in
stone where no wind can ever erase it.’
Learn to write your hurt in the sand and to carve
your benefits in stone. Take the time to live! Do not
value the things you have in your life, but value
WHO you have known in your life! Be kinder than
necessary,
necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some
kind of
of battle.
Please remember in prayer:
Newsletter option:
Glen Baker, Shirley Barenz, Leon Berg, Cheryl Clancy,
Christopher Erickson, Jeff Evenson, David, Annette
Hanson, Bob & Arlene Harper, Donna Hines, Jackie,
Jessica, Bill Johnson, Beatrice Johnson, Cindy Johnson,
Merlyn Johnson, Brooke Kawalek, Juliana Kopka, Joel
Lener, Janice Palmi, Evie Peterson, Barb Rivard, Holly
Scanlon, Gene Schadow, Randy Schallenberger, Teri,
Suzy Tappee, Kyara Thompson, Nina Wicklund, Skip
Yost, Tammy Zuech and our homebound members.
For those who are interested and able, Erin can
email you the newsletters instead of by mail. Please
notify Erin at church if you are interested in doing
so. 689-2271 or office@tlcfalun.com
Pastoral Potpourri...
Well, Charlotte and I have officially joined the
"decadent generation." We bought a small air
conditioning unit to cool our living/dining/kitchen area.
We consider it a decadent move because we're
Germans, and Germans simply suffer through
discomfort ...you know, things like days when it's 95 in
the shade with 100 percent humidity. Who needs an air
conditioner in northwest Wisconsin for those few days
that boil your blood and tender parts of your body?
We Germans are good at suffering.
In addition to the sweat and suffering, the recent
heat has brought back a flood of childhood memories of
hot summer days at my grandma's house. Those were
days before AC had been born.
Grandma and a few of her neighbors still had ice
boxes instead of refridgerators (another decadent
instrument), and that meant that there was an ice man
who passed down our street every few days. For those
of you too young to know what that was all about, he
was someone with a big wagon that could carry large
hunks of ice to be split and put into folks' ice boxes to
cool food.
Anyway, the ice man trundled down the street,
stopping here and there to drop off his ice. And anytime
he stopped, there was a small horde of little kids that hit
his wagon looking for some of the chips that were
broken off as he split the ice for delivery.
Those chips had the value of gold on hot days.
They could be sucked on for a long, slow cooling effect
that ran down a parched throat, or they could be rubbed
along arms or the back of a neck to cool the body...or
they could be dropped inside someone's shirt and down
the back to produce whooping and hollering and some
weird jumping forms of dancing.
That was the age, too, when someone invented
something called "Cool Aid", a godsend to hot kids and
frazzeled moms. We drank that stuff by the barrel full.
But one of the things I remember most are the
nights. By the end of the day, our uninsulated houses
were like the inside of baking ovens, and we all sort of
instinctively migrated out onto porches and sidewalks as
the cool of the evening settled in. It was there that we
found some wonderful relief from what had hit us during
the day.
And it was there that our community really
formed itself. My grandfather, Grandpa Zims, would sit
on the steps of the front porch and read the day's
newspaper while he smoked his delightful pipe with the
curved stem. As as the light began to fade, we kids
scrambled to retrieve the burned out matches he tossed
into the grass as he lit his pipe. We never did anything
with them, but we always thought that such marvelous
things shouldn't go to waste.
Well, two things happened then. One thing was
that as the kids congregated, neighbors on either side of
the street sitting on steps and porches began to call out to
one another and to visit back and forth. Gossip of the
day was shared, sorted and evaluated, and news from the
families passed between us.
The other thing was that we kids began to form a
small mob with rather unclear intentions. We came
together around the age old question and answer
formula. Kid number one: "Whadda you wanna do?"
Kid number two: "I dunno. Whadda you wanna do?"
Kid number one again: "I dunno." This usally led to
various proposals for some kind of action, but on those
cool evenings following on hot days, we were just a bit
too lethargic to really want to do anything more than sit
around and wonder what to do.
What I realize now in retrospect, when vision is
always 20/20 and marvelously wise, is that we had
already done something quite marvelous, adults and
kids. We had come together as a community of people
with a common bond, the heat of the day and the desire
for some relief. In the process we had shared our lives
in the words passed between us, and we were always just
a bit closer and more connected and more caring for that
sharing.
So the heat became a funny form of blessing. It
was certainly discomfort enough to satisfy all of us
Germans, but it was also a force that brought the
blessing of community. We didn't much enjoy the heat,
but we basked in the companionship it brought.
Since those days, my life has passed through
some periods of searing, scorching heat, figuratively as
well as literally. There have been so many experiences,
so many times and events that have brought the heat.
There has been the heat of the summer days, and the heat
of sicknesses, deaths, anxieties and worries, difficult
choices, painful decisions, sadnesses and hurts, broken
dreams...and on and on.
And what I have learned over time is that if I
come together with Christ's community, created from the
heat that he himself suffered, there is something of
blessing even in the heat. In the sharing, and visiting,
and simple give and take of casual conversation,
community comes into being, and we come away cooled
and soothed by caring and sharing and a greater
closeness to others who are feeling the heat with us.
So perhaps I need to use the air conditioning
wisely. It's got its place to get me through some intense
heat. But there is something I need in all those different
kinds of heat, too. They can be Christ's gifts to build
community...I need that heat as well as the AC's cooling.
Peace,
Pastor Carl
Scripture readings for the month...
August 5 -- Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Apparently not satisfied by Jesus' feeding of
thousands, some who were there press him for a
sign of his power; perhaps it is daily manna they
want. As always in John's gospel when people want
a sign, Jesus offers himself. He is the bread come
from heaven to give life to the world. He calls us to
come to him and believe in him, and through that
relationship to know the one who sent him.
Exodus 16:2–4, 9–15
Psalm 78:23–29
Ephesians 4:1–16
John 6:24–35
August 12 -- Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus says that the bread he gives for the life of the
world is his flesh, and whoever eats this bread has
eternal life now and will be raised on the last day.
In Ephesians Paul tells us what this life Jesus gives
us looks like, this life we live as those marked with
the seal of the Holy Spirit in baptism. We live in
love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
The whole purpose of life is giving yourself for the
other.
1 Kings 19:4–8
Psalm 34:1–8
Ephesians 4:25—5:2
John 6:35, 41–51
August 19 -- Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Wisdom prepares a feast, sets her table, and invites
all to come and eat her bread and drink her wine.
The first chapter of John's gospel owes much to the
biblical tradition that imagined Wisdom as existing
before anything was created and having a role in
the work of creation. Christ, the wisdom of God (1
Cor. 1:24), today invites us to eat his flesh and
drink his blood. John's gospel includes no account
of the institution of the Lord's supper, but here we
can't help hearing Jesus' words as an invitation to
the meal of bread and wine we share.
Proverbs 9:1–6
Psalm 34:9–14
Ephesians 5:15–20
John 6:51–58
August 26 -- Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
In today's gospel many people take offense at Jesus'
invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood; even
many of Jesus' disciples peel off. This is the
backdrop in John's gospel for Peter's confession of
faith. "To whom can we go?" asks Peter, in words
we sometimes sing just before the gospel is read.
"You have the words of eternal life." In order to
take such a stand, as Peter and Joshua did, Paul
tells us to arm ourselves with the word of God. We
pray in the Spirit that we might be bold
ambassadors of the gospel.
Joshua 24:1–2a, 14–18
Psalm 34:15–22
Ephesians 6:10–20
John 6:56–69
Special worship service...
Last Summer we gathered at Luther Point
for a special worship service that brought together
seven of our area ELCA churches in one common
worship program. We will gather in the same way
again this year on Sunday, August 12.
There will be no worship service at Trinity
Falun that day since all of us who will be
worshiping will be at Luther Point.
Offerings will be handled as they were last
year. There will be one offering box for special
gifts for Luther Point and its ministry, and each
congregation will furnish a box with the
congregation name on it for offerings for that
congregation. So look for two boxes, one labeled
"Luther Point" and the other "Trinity."
Be sure to bring a folding chair or blanket to
sit on, and bring a dish to pass for the potluck meal
afterward.
Let's have a good turnout from Trinity to
support the common ministry of our ELCA
churches.
Luther Point...
And while we are on the subject of Luther
Point, our council passed a resolution in its meeting
July 15 that authorizes a special offering for Luther
Point on the last Sunday of each month. It will be a
"noisy offering" of any loose change you happen to
have in pocket or purse.
Simply bring your change and dump it in the
bucket (or can or whatever) that gets passed...any
noise we make is simply an affirmation of our
support for this important ministry at Luther Point.
And if you have no loose change? No
problem, no problem! Toss in a bill or two or more
to cushion the falling coins...and quiet some of the
noise.
Here's a chance at last to begin putting your
piggy bank gatherings to some good use.
GPS...
Quick! What does GPS stand for? Global
positioning system...that satellite age thing designed
to make obsolete the compasses of old geezers? Is
that your guess?
Well, you could probably win a buck or two
in a bet on that, but not among eight ELCA
congregations in northwest Wisconsin. Up here that
stands for "God's People Serving."
Back almost two years ago, seven of our
area ELCA congregations began meeting to develop
ways that we could work together and pool our
resources to do things together that were too big for
us to do alone. Recently an eighth congregation
joined in.
As our leadership group met to make plans
and develop programs, we started to look for a
name for our group, and it wasn't easy to find one.
Finally someone came up with GPS, a catchie name
since the initials were already part of our culture,
and a meaningful name since we are indeed (as a
group) God's people serving one another and our
communities.
Our GPS group has already accomplished
quite a bit. We've begun worshiping together, and
have held joint VBS and confirmation programs,
and we have joined to distribute free food to people
in our area. And we are now looking for ways to
expand our common ministry in new directions.
So watch for further developments, and next
time you hear the letters GPS, remember that those
letters really do point to a new guidance system, one
that is run and powered by the Holy Spirit.
WELCA NEWS
Augusts Priscilla Circle will meet Monday, July 30th at
1:30pm at church. Charlotte is hostess. Read the book of
Judges for our next study.
Excerpts from the unofficial minutes at July’s business
meeting:
It was decided that the proceeds raised from the auction
food stand will stay in our general account to cover
expenses for supplies. After giving 10% of our proceeds
from the Pie and Ice Cream Social to the Trinity General
Fund the balance will go to the WELCA remodeling
fund.
Summer Retreat is at Luther Point on Saturday August
11th.
We will make a donation of $50.00 to Luther Point for
the Quilt Auction.
2012
July 30th – Priscilla Circle at 1:30pm at church. Charlotte
is hostess.
August 11th – Apple River Conference
WELCA Summer Retreat at Luther Point.
September 9th – WELCA Business Meeting after church
service. Election of officers.
September 28th – Harvest Festival. 4pm-7pm Start the
raffle.
October 1st – Priscilla Circle, 1:30pm at church. Hostess is
needed
October 7th – LWR Sunday
November 4th – Thank Offering Sunday
November 5th – Priscilla Circle, 1:30pm at church.
Hostess is needed
November 11th – WELCA Business Meeting. Pack
Thanksgiving Containers.
December 8th – Cookie Walk. Drawing for Raffle.
We are still collection soap for Lutheran World Relief
but this year instead of kits we will give a donation to our
own school district as we are aware of a need for tennis
shoes and warm clothing.
All women of Trinity are members of WELCA and are
encouraged to attend meetings. Your support and input is
valuable.
WELCA SUMMER RETREAT
Saturday August 11th
Registration: 8:30am and is $10.00 per person which
includes morning coffee, treats, program and lunch.
Program: Pati Kachel will be speaking about “Daughters
of Heaven”
Have your reservations to Alice by July 29th. The $10.00
can be paid the morning of the retreat.
Luther Point will be holding the GPS Joint Worship on
August 12th at 10am. Those who are interested in
attending will need to bring a dish to pass and lawn chairs.
There will be a normal offering for Trinity and then a free
will for Luther Point. Trinity needs volunteers. If you
interested in helping, please contact Sara or Pastor Carl.
There will be a sign up sheet downstairs for volunteers.